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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Isaiah 64 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/isaiah/64.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; 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The prophet asks that Jehovan may not only “look down” from heaven, but may rend, as it were, the dark clouds that hide the light of His countenance from His people, and that the mountains might <span class= "ital">tremble </span>at His presence. (Comp. <a href="/psalms/68-8.htm" title="The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.">Psalm 68:8</a>; <a href="/exodus/19-18.htm" title="And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.">Exodus 19:18</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/64-2.htm">Isaiah 64:2</a></div><div class="verse">As <i>when</i> the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, <i>that</i> the nations may tremble at thy presence!</div>(2) <span class= "bld">As when the melting fire burneth . . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">as when fire Kindleth brushwood, as when fire causeth the water to boil. </span>The two-fold action of material fire is used, as elsewhere, as a symbol of the “consuming fire” (<a href="/hebrews/12-29.htm" title="For our God is a consuming fire.">Hebrews 12:29</a>) of the wrath of Jehovah.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/64-3.htm">Isaiah 64:3</a></div><div class="verse">When thou didst terrible things <i>which</i> we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">When thou didst terrible things . . .</span>—The latter clause, “thou camest down <span class= "bld">. . .</span>” is supposed by some critics to be an accidental repetition from <a href="/isaiah/64-1.htm" title="Oh that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might flow down at your presence,">Isaiah 64:1</a>. By others it is taken as an intentional repetition, emphasising the previous assertion, after the manner of Hebrew poetry. The latter view seems to have most in its favour.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/64-4.htm">Isaiah 64:4</a></div><div class="verse">For since the beginning of the world <i>men</i> have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, <i>what</i> he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee . . .</span>—The best commentators are in favour of rendering, <span class= "ital">Neither hath the eye seen a God beside Thee, who will work for him that waiteth for Him. </span>The sense is not that God alone knows what He hath prepared, but that no man knows (sight and hearing being used as including all forms of spiritual apprehension) any god who does such great things as He does. St. Paul, in <a href="/1_corinthians/2-9.htm" title="But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him.">1Corinthians 2:9</a>, applies the words freely, after his manner, to the eternal blessings which God prepares for His people. Clement of Rome (chap. 34), it may be noted, makes a like application of the words, giving “those who wait for Him” (as in Isaiah), instead of “those who love Him.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/64-5.htm">Isaiah 64:5</a></div><div class="verse">Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, <i>those that</i> remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Thou meetest him . . .</span>—The “meeting” is obviously one of favour. That was the law of God’s dealings with men. He met, in this sense, those who at once rejoiced in righteousness and practised it. But with Israel it was not so. Their sins had brought them under His anger, not under His favour.<p>In <span class= "bld">those is continuance . . .</span>—The clause is difficult, and has been variously interpreted—(1) “<span class= "ital">In these </span>(the ways of God) <span class= "ital">there is permanence </span>(literally, <span class= "ital">eternity</span>)<span class= "ital">, that we may be saved;” </span>and (2) “<span class= "ital">In these </span>(the ways of evil) <span class= "ital">have we been a long time, and shall we be saved?” </span>The latter seems preferable. So taken, the clause carries on the confession of the people’s sinfulness.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/64-6.htm">Isaiah 64:6</a></div><div class="verse">But we are all as an unclean <i>thing</i>, and all our righteousnesses <i>are</i> as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">We are all as an unclean thing . . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">as he who is unclean, scil., </span>like the leper of <a href="/leviticus/13-45.htm" title="And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bore, and he shall put a covering on his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean.">Leviticus 13:45</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Filthy rags </span>point to that which to the Israelite was the other extremest form of ceremonial uncleanness, as in <a href="/ezekiel/36-17.htm" title="Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelled in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.">Ezekiel 36:17</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Have taken us away</span>—<span class= "ital">scil., </span>afar off from the light and favour of Jehovah.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/64-7.htm">Isaiah 64:7</a></div><div class="verse">And <i>there is</i> none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">Hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">hast delivered us into the hand </span>(<span class= "ital">scil., </span>the power) <span class= "ital">of our iniquities. </span>The previous clause had pointed to the people s forgetfulness of God—what we should call their indifference—as the root-evil. This states that that sin led, in the righteous judgment of God, to open iniquities. The thought is parallel to that of <a href="/context/romans/1-21.htm" title="Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.">Romans 1:21-24</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/64-8.htm">Isaiah 64:8</a></div><div class="verse">But now, O LORD, thou <i>art</i> our father; we <i>are</i> the clay, and thou our potter; and we all <i>are</i> the work of thy hand.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">We are the clay, and thou our potter . . .</span>—Commonly, partly, perhaps, from St. Paul’s application of the image in <a href="/context/romans/9-20.htm" title="No but, O man, who are you that reply against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus?">Romans 9:20-21</a>, and Isaiah’s own use of it in <a href="/isaiah/29-16.htm" title="Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?">Isaiah 29:16</a>, we associate the idea of the potter with that of simple arbitrary sovereignty. Here, however (as in <a href="/jeremiah/18-6.htm" title="O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? said the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.">Jeremiah 18:6</a>), another aspect is presented to us, and the power of the Great Potter is made the ground of prayer. The “clay” entreats Him to fashion it according to His will, and has faith in His readiness, as well as His power, to comply with that prayer. The thought of the “potter” becomes, in this aspect of it, one with that of the Fatherhood of God.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/64-10.htm">Isaiah 64:10</a></div><div class="verse">Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">Thy holy cities . . .</span>—There is no other instance of the plural, and this probably led the LXX. and Vulg. to substitute the singular. It probably rests on the thought that the whole land was holy (<a href="/zechariah/2-12.htm" title="And the LORD shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again.">Zechariah 2:12</a>), and that this attribute extended, therefore, to all its cities, especially to those which were connected with historical memories. Possibly, however, Zion and Jerusalem—the former identified with the Temple, the latter with the people of Jehovah—are thought of as two distinct cities, locally united. The “wilderness” is, as elsewhere, rather open pasture-land than a sandy desert.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/64-11.htm">Isaiah 64:11</a></div><div class="verse">Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">Our holy and our beautiful house . . .</span>—The destruction of the Temple, which, on the assumption of Isaiah’s authorship, the prophet sees in vision, with all its historic memories, comes as the climax of suffering, and, therefore, of the appeal to the compassion of Jehovah.<p><span class= "bld">All our pleasant things . . .</span>—Probably, as in <a href="/2_chronicles/36-19.htm" title="And they burnt the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.">2Chronicles 36:19</a>, the precincts, porticoes, and other “goodly buildings” of the Temple.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/64-12.htm">Isaiah 64:12</a></div><div class="verse">Wilt thou refrain thyself for these <i>things</i>, O LORD? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?</div>(12) <span class= "bld">Wilt thou refrain . . .</span>?—The final appeal to the fatherly compassion of Jehovah reminds us of the scene when Joseph could not “refrain” (<a href="/genesis/45-1.htm" title="Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brothers.">Genesis 45:1</a>), and natural tenderness would find a vent. Could the God of Israel look on the scene of desolation, and not be moved to pity?<p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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